hubiestubert:t3knomanser: pute kisses like a man: in middle english it was aks. thus, the historically accurate pronunciation is aks.

Well, not really. Up until 1600 "ax" was considered an acceptable word for "ask", and it derives from "acsian" in Old English. But also dating back to Old English is "ascian", which is the root of the modern "ask".

Arguably, "ask" is more historically "accurate" because it's closer to the roots across many closely related languages: Proto-Germanic's "aiskojan", Saxon's "escon", Old High German's "eiscon",. The "ais-" prefix itself ties back to Sanskrit and Armenian.

All that is to say, "aks" was an acceptable historical anomaly, but was never "the" accurate pronunciation of "ask".

What a lot of dialects do is preserve older forms. And it boils down to mutual intelligibility.

English is a riotous profusion of forms, with formal and informal often blurring over the years. Long years at that, as a trade tongue, it borrowed heavily from Latinate forms, as well as the Germanic forebears, and the odd bits of Gaelic and other languages it butts up against. It is a sponge for new words, from languages that are no where near those roots.

"Proper" English is no more than the dialect that is used by those in current power, and taught as being the "correct" version, as a method of cultural control. It is a device of politics, not linguistics. Populations that are isolated by region spin dialects out of use. "Proper" English is only "proper" because folks in power would like their version be the formal one, and it is reinforced again and again, to keep those populations slightly isolated, by marginalizing the usage from their region. It's not about proper, it's merely a tool of politics.

"Yes, well that's not exactly what I've got written on the card,but I knew your father, so Footlights lead by 25 points."

timujin:I'm with him on all of them but "often", I don't think I know anyone who pronounces it "offen", nor do I have any recollection of hearing that it is supposed to be a "silent t" prior to this article.

I'm going to try to get through this one without a President Bush joke. All right, so, despite the fact that it's 2008, this is a word with which we're somehow still struggling. Like most of the words on this list, "nuclear" is spelled EXACTLY AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE PRONOUNCED and yet, people continue to screw it up worse than the War in Iraq... oh, dammit.

^^^^ THIS

Same is true for Israel, too, yet so many pronounce it "is ree ahl" instead of "is rah el".

"Then turning around, I saw this kid yacking it up for the crowd, obviously having a blast with this ugly Jew-hating sign. And what does that mean, "SASQUATCH ISRAEL"? This is a play on the "legitimacy myth" of Israel's existence. As there's of course a "Sasquatch myth," it's worth noting the implied comparison: that Israel is also an ape-like beast existing only in historical folklore. Absent legitimacy, Israel has "no right to exist." This kid's sign is but one more example of eliminationist anti-Semitism. And look at how overjoyed he is in boasting this hatred. Creepy"

How about some of you upper Ohio Valley peeps educate me on exactly what the fark kind of accent they have in SE Ohio? I lived in New Lexington, OH for two years, and about 1/3 of the people I met had this nasally, pinched way of delivering vowels: "home" = "haame", "I'm" = "Oim", etc.

I agree many Southerners don't do much to help the perception that we're all uneducated, but these people sounded like they were from another planet!

I live in St. Clair County AL about 35 min. drive from Talladega ('Dega). The drawl & language on the factory floor at my last job would probably make most of ya'll internet folks' ears fall off. "I gotta git down to tha doller stoar 'fore Misty gits off her shift at tha cracker Barrel. We gon git some coors lite & go to tha races" Also, Row Tide ya'll.

HortusMatris:puckrock2000: netcentric: "If you're using words like "snuck," "brang," or "irregardless," (no, none of those are real words)... "

Wtf ? That's unpossible.

H'aint ?

Well, according to the Random House Dictionary, "First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak".So if people have been using it that way for over a century, then yes, it's a real word.

^This^

Snuck is so a real word!

I'll give you snuck, but goddammitsomuch I will never surrender to "irregardless!"

palladiate:Someone fails at linguistic history. There's a reason why so many folks put an r at the end of sherbet. It's the same reason if you're out in the sticks you'll hear someone say "warsh." It's called an "intrusive r" and is common in most rhotic dialects of English. It's a peculiarity of r-pronunciation, and not unique to English, but all languages that feature an analog of the English R.

I'd also like to note that awry comes from "a wrien," comparable to "aglee" in Scottish brogue. I might mention that aglee is indeed pronounced the "wrong" way. It's called a vowel shift, something that some folks out there didn't really get to participate in. They're not so much "wrong" as somewhere they fell off the linguistic bus.

And, finally, fark you for being a prescriptivist. English changes faster than you can write down your silly rules. Write and speak to your audience, don't write and speak to a handful of mostly dead men's grammatical peeves. English is the most mutable language in recorded history, and some of us would like to keep it that way.